Tribal communities, in my experience, are very open to people who have an interest in working with them, provided that those people have a degree of sensitivity and aren't pushing an agenda when they come in.

So I would say, first of all, getting connected with either tribal programs, tribal Head Start for instance, or tribal education programs in a public school system or contacting the tribe directly, going to tribal meetings and talking to folks in the tribe. And really planning on doing a lot of listening as much as doing a lot of talking is really a good way to start.

Tribes are very open especially to the idea that somebody might be interested in bringing resources into the community, again provided that the take is that this is going to be something that benefits tribal members, and to the extent that it does and that the general perception is that people are sensitive and are willing to listen, it can go really smoothly.

I think people need to have a different sense of timelines and of the process. I think it's oftentimes less linear. It's not about going in and saying, "This is what you do. This is what we're going to do. We want to bring this in. Please sign off, and then we'll get started." It's really much more about understanding what the tribal needs are and having a two-way conversation, but that's very consistent again with the tenets of any kind of community-based participatory research. I think that's the critical factor as much as anything is being willing to listen and being willing to put the agenda aside to be able to hear what it is that people want to do.